Coating and cylindrical grinding apparatus

ABSTRACT

A coating and cylindrical grinding apparatus includes a main body defining a cavity, a roller device, a liquid jetting device, a heating device, a cylindrical grinding device, and a support device received in the cavity. The roller device includes a number of rollers positioned along a first direction and is used for coating a work-piece. The liquid jetting device is mounted above the roller device for ejecting coating liquid to the roller device. The heating device heats the work-piece. The cylindrical grinding device includes a grinding wheel positioned at an end of the cavity along a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction. The support device includes a support plate for supporting the work-piece, the support device is capable of carrying the work-piece to contact the rollers or the grinding wheel.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a coating and cylindrical grindingapparatus.

2. Description of Related Art

Round coated work-pieces, such as round coated glass pieces, are widelyused in optical equipments. The round coated work-pieces are produced bycutting a substrate into many small rectangular pieces, then cylindricalgrinding and coating the small rectangular pieces, thus to get the roundcoated work-pieces. The sequence of the cylindrical grinding process andthe coating process can be exchanged. However, the cylindrical grindingprocess and the coating process are executed at different apparatuses,thus, when the foregoing process is finished, the work-pieces must beunloaded from an apparatus, transported to another apparatus, loaded onthe another apparatus, then endure the next process. The unloading,transporting, and loading process prolong the whole time for producingthe work-pieces. Furthermore, the work-pieces may be polluted in theunloading, transporting, and loading process and become useless.

Thus, what is needed is a coating and cylindrical grinding apparatusthat can overcome the above-mentioned limitations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Many aspects of the embodiments can be better understood with referenceto the following drawings. The components in the drawings are notnecessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed uponclearly illustrating the principles of the present disclosure. Moreover,in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding partsthroughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a schematic, isometric view of a coating and cylindricalgrinding apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic, cross-sectional view of the coating andcylindrical grinding apparatus of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 shows a work-piece being coated using the coating and cylindricalgrinding apparatus of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 shows a work-piece being heated using the coating and cylindricalgrinding apparatus of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 shows a work-piece being cylindrical grinded using the coatingand cylindrical grinding apparatus of FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, a coating and cylindrical grinding apparatus100, according to an exemplary embodiment is shown. The coating andcylindrical grinding apparatus 100 includes a main body 10, a rollerdevice 20, a liquid jetting device 30, a heating device 40, acylindrical grinding device 50, and a support device 60. The rollerdevice 20, the liquid jetting device 30, the heating device 40, thecylindrical grinding device 50, and the support device 60 are allreceived in the main body 10. The support device 60 carries a work-piece90 to process the work-piece 90 with the roller device 20 and thecylindrical grinding device 50.

The main body 10 is a housing with a cuboid cavity 101 defined thereinto receive the roller device 20, the liquid jetting device 30, theheating device 40, the cylindrical grinding device 50, and the supportdevice 60. The cavity 101 is substantially sealed to prevent the cutchips from sputtering out. The main body 10 defines an opening 102communicating with the cavity 101 for ingress and egress of thework-piece 90. The opening 102 is positioned at an end of the cavity 101along a longitudinal direction thereof. A slide rail 103 is received inthe cavity 101 and is positioned at the bottom of the cavity 101. Theslide rail 103 extends along the longitudinal direction of the cavity101.

The roller device 20 includes a number of rollers 201 arrayed along thelongitudinal direction of the cavity 101. The roller 201 isbarrel-shaped. Each roller 201 is rotatably connected to the main body10 by a first shaft 202. The first shaft 202 is connected to a motor(not shown). The roller 201 is driven by the motor to rotate. In thepresent embodiment, the roller 201 is positioned above the middleportion of the cavity 101.

The liquid jetting device 30 is mounted on the main body 10 and abovethe roller device 20. The liquid jetting device 30 includes a liquidcontainer 301 and a nozzle 302. The liquid container 301 is positionedout of the cavity 101. The nozzle 302 is positioned in the cavity 101.The liquid container 301 communicates with the nozzle 302. The liquidcontainer 301 stores a coating liquid. The nozzle 302 ejects the coatingliquid to the rollers 201, so that the rollers 201 can coat the coatingliquid on the work-piece 90.

The heating device 40 heats the work-piece 90 to solidify the coatingliquid to form a coating film. In this embodiment, the heating device 40is mounted on the main body 10, and positioned between the roller device20 and the cylindrical grinding device 50.

The cylindrical grinding device 50 is positioned at an end of the cavity101 away from the opening 102 along a direction substantiallyperpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the cavity 101. Thecylindrical grinding device 50 grinds the outer diameter of thework-piece 90. The cylindrical grinding device 50 includes a grindingwheel 501. The grinding wheel 501 is barrel-shaped. The grinding wheel501 is rotatably connected to the main body 10 with a second shaft 502.The second shaft 502 is connected to a motor (not shown). The grindingwheel 501 is driven by the motor to rotate for grinding the outerdiameter of the work-piece 90. The rotation direction of the grindingwheel 501 is perpendicular to the rotation direction of the roller 201because the rolled surface of the work-piece 90 is perpendicular to thecoated surface of the work-piece 90. The grinding wheel 501 is an emerywheel.

The support device 60 includes a drive unit 602, an elevation unit 603fixed on the drive unit 602, and a support plate 604 fixed on theelevation unit 603. The drive unit 602 is slidably mounted on the sliderail 103. The drive unit 602 includes a stepper motor (not shown). Theelevation unit 603 is mounted on the stepper motor and driven by thestepper motor to move up and down relative to the roller 201. In thepresent embodiment, the elevation unit 603 is a hollow threaded shaft.The support plate 604 is rotatably connected to an end of the elevationunit 603 away from the drive unit 602. The support plate 604 defines asuction hole 605 communicating with a vacuum device (not shown) by theelevation unit 603. The vacuum device is capable of providing differentsuction levels to hold the work-piece 90 on the support plate 604. Thesupport device 60 includes a motor (not shown) for driving the driveunit 602 to move along the slide rail 103.

The coating and cylindrical grinding apparatus 100 further includes acleaning device 70. The cleaning device 70 is positioned adjacent to thecylindrical grinding device 50 for jetting cleaning fluid to thework-piece 90 during in the cylindrical grinding process. A collectionand discharge device (not shown) is positioned at the bottom of thecavity 101 for collecting chips and discharging cleaning fluid.

Referring to FIGS. 3-5, an operation process of the coating andcylindrical grinding apparatus 100 is shown. The support device 60 ismoved to an end of the slide rail 103 near the opening 102, and thesupport plate 604 moves down towards the bottom of the cavity 101. Thework-piece 90 is first put on the support plate 604 through the opening102. The support plate 604 engages the work-piece 90. Then the supportdevice 60 moves towards the opposite end of the slide rail 103. Themotor of the support device 60 drives the elevation unit 603 to riseuntil the surface of the work-piece 90 contacts with the rollers 201.The nozzle 302 ejects the coating liquid. The rollers 201 turn to coatthe coating liquid on the surface of the work-piece 90. The supportdevice 60 reciprocates along the slide rail 103 to coat the coatingliquid on the surface of the work-piece 90 substantially and evenly.Then the support device 60 moves to the position beneath the heatingdevice 40. The heating device 40 heats the work-piece 90 to solidify thecoating liquid, thus to form a coating film.

The support device 60 moves to the grinding wheel 501 when the coatingprocess is completed. The work-piece 90 makes contact with the grindingwheel 501. The grinding wheel 501 turns and rotates the work-piece 90 togrind the work-piece 90 into a circular shape. The cleaning device 70jets cleaning fluid at the work-piece 90 when the work-piece 90 isrolled.

The support device 60 moves to the position beneath the heating device40 again when the work-piece 90 is completely rolled. The heating device40 dries the work-piece 90. Finally, the work-piece 90 is taken out fromthe opening 102.

The preceding sequence of the coating process and the cylindricalgrinding process is not fixed. That is, a work-piece 90 can first becoated, then cylindrical ground, or first cylindrical ground, and thencoated.

It will be understood that the above particular embodiments are shownand described by way of illustration only. The principles and thefeatures of the present disclosure may be employed in various andnumerous embodiments thereof without departing from the scope of thedisclosure as claimed. The above-described embodiments illustrate thescope of the disclosure but do not restrict the scope of the disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A coating and cylindrical grinding apparatus,comprising: a main body defining a cavity therein; a roller devicereceived in the cavity, the roller device comprising a plurality ofrollers positioned along a first direction and configured for coating awork-piece; a liquid jetting device mounted above the roller device,configured for ejecting coating liquid to the roller device; a heatingdevice received in the cavity, configured for heating the work-piece; acylindrical grinding device received in the cavity, the cylindricalgrinding device comprising a grinding wheel positioned at an end of thecavity along a second direction substantially perpendicular to the firstdirection; and a support device received in the cavity, the supportdevice comprising a support plate for supporting the work-piece, thesupport device capable of carrying the work-piece to contact the rollersor the grinding wheel.
 2. The coating and cylindrical grinding apparatusas claimed in claim 1, wherein the main body defines an openingcommunicating with the cavity for ingress and egress of the work-piece.3. The coating and cylindrical grinding apparatus as claimed in claim 1,further comprising a slide rail received in the cavity, the slide railpositioned on the bottom of the cavity, and extending parallel to thefirst direction of the cavity.
 4. The coating and cylindrical grindingapparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the support device comprises adrive unit slidably positioned on the slide rail, and an elevation unitpositioned on the drive unit, the support plate is rotatably connectedto an end of the elevation unit, the elevation unit is capable of beingdriven by the drive unit to move toward or away from the rollers.
 5. Thecoating and cylindrical grinding apparatus as claimed in claim 4,wherein the support plate defines a suction hole for sucking thework-piece.
 6. The coating and cylindrical grinding apparatus as claimedin claim 5, wherein the elevation unit is a hollow threaded shaft, thesuction hole is communicated to the elevation unit.
 7. The coating andcylindrical grinding apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprisinga cleaning device positioned adjacent to the cylindrical grinding devicefor jetting cleaning fluid to the work-piece during a cylindricalgrinding process.
 8. The coating and cylindrical grinding apparatus asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the grinding wheel is emery wheel.
 9. Thecoating and cylindrical grinding apparatus as claimed in claim 1,wherein each of the rollers and the grinding wheel are barrel-shaped.10. The coating and cylindrical grinding apparatus as claimed in claim1, wherein the cavity is cuboid shaped.
 11. The coating and cylindricalgrinding apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the liquid jettingdevice comprises a liquid container configured for storing the coatingliquid and a nozzle configured for ejecting the coating liquid to therollers.